Moving right along through the season’s major Oscar categories, we come today to the Best Director field. A wide and varied field of contenders is represented, from intimate dramas to CGI blockbusters and everything in between.

As of late, there has been little mystery around this category in the season’s final hours. Wins for Peter Jackson, Clint Eastwood, Ang Lee, Martin Scorsese, the Coen brothers, Danny Boyle, Kathryn Bigelow, Tom Hooper and Michel Haznavicius were all widely expected. You have to go all the way back 10 years, to Roman Polanski’s shocking win for “The Pianist” in 2002, to find a race that was the least bit surprising.

The Best Director category tends to mirror the Best Picture field, and this has particularly been the case in the last three years, which have seen an expanded Best Picture category. No nominated director has seen his film miss in Best Pic in that time, leaving one to wonder if the “lone director” nomination is really a thing of the past.

For an in-depth overview of the entire field, click on the gallery story below composed and constructed by myself and Guy Lodge.

Agree or disagree on our thoughts? Share your own below.